WTC Health Registry Publishes 1st Cancer Study Among Enrollees

The Journal of the American Medical Association published the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Registry’s first cancer study. It is based on an analysis of verified cancer diagnoses among 55,778 WTC Health Registry enrollees who resided in New York State at the time of their enrollment.

The study did not find increases in cancer rates in people directly exposed to the WTC disaster overall, but did find small increases in rates of three types of cancer—prostate cancer, thyroid cancer and multiple myeloma—among rescue and recovery workers in the late period (2007-2008) compared to non-exposed New York State residents.

The study divided follow-up into early and late periods because cancers occurring in the late period—at least 5 or more years after 9/11—are more likely to be related to WTC exposure. The study also examined rescue and recovery workers separately from non-rescue and recovery workers because exposures in the two groups vary considerably in terms of type, intensity and duration.

This is the first 9/11 cancer study to examine Lower Manhattan residents, area workers, students and passers-by, in addition to rescue/recovery workers as a whole (including police sanitation and construction workers) not firefighters alone, and both genders and children as well as adults.

The Registry plans to continue working with state cancer registries to monitor longer-term trends.